One of the things we wanted to see while in the Canadian Rockies was the Columbia Icefield. It’s one of the largest icefields outside the Arctic Circle. It took over 3 hours to drive to it but it was definitely worth it. Visitors can park near the visitor center and hike out to the edge of the icefield – about 2/3 of a mile. Boy, it was COLD as you got close to the ice, I’m glad I had a jacket and hiking boots on.

It was very interesting and also sad to see how far the icefield has retreated though – 20 years ago the parking lot where we parked was right at the edge of the icefield, and 100 years ago it covered where the visitor center and highway are now.

We didn’t see any wildlife near the icefield or on the drive up or back. I’m told there’s lots of wildlife though. It’s possible the smokiness in the area has caused the animals to stay away from the roads, I don’t know.

It was very smoky in Golden where we stayed, and was smoky through the Yoho National Park. But, as we got closer to the icefield it wasn’t as bad. I think it’s because the smoke couldn’t get over the higher mountains in that part of the Canadian Rockies.

Beautiful area! Here are some pictures:

Golden, B.C., where we stayed for a week, is just a short drive from Glacier National Park of Canada, so we took a ride there to see the mountains and glaciers. It was quite smoky due to all the fires burning in B.C. this summer, so visibility was not real good. Also, the road through the national park isn’t intended to allow visitors to see the best views and glaciers – it’s the TransCanada Parkway, Hwy 1, so it’s more intended to get people through the area.

But, we still enjoyed the trip and the scenery and glaciers. There were several that we could see from the road. There were also several “snow sheds” that are tunnels through an area of steep mountainside that, during an avalanche or heavy snowfall, would bury the road completely. The “snow sheds” allow travel with just a little bit of clearing away snow or landslide at either end. They are also for safety during an avalanche; we saw signs that said in case of an avalanche try to get to a snow shed.

Here are some pictures we took:

While driving through the Yoho and Banff National Parks in Canada we took a side road to see one of the highest falls in North American, Takakkaw Falls. After driving about 13 miles on a narrow windy road with one switchback that was so narrow most people coming up (the tight side) had to make 3point turns, causing people coming down to stop and wait for them. With our big truck we had to do that as well, and even after making the turn we had to pull our mirrors in to squeeze past a big truck coming down with his mirrors pulled in.

The falls are magnificent! Not as high as Horsetail falls in Yosemite, but lots of water spilling over in a small crack in the rock of the cliff. There’s a short hiking trail to get right at the base of the falls where you can see it full length and feel the mist as well! Part of the hiking trail was a wooden bridge across the river and Laddy was real uncomfortable crossing it – but with some pulling and coaxing we got him across.

The cliff to both sides of the falls is almost perfectly vertical and was probably carved by the water spilling over the edge. As we looked at the falls and cliff we noticed movement on the cliff and saw a mountain goat and two climbers in fairly close proximity. We got a good picture of it and I’ve included it here.

Here are pictures we took:

We’re in Golden, BC at the moment so that we can visit several Canadian National Parks in the Canadian Rockies. There’s been a lot of smoke as there are wildfires burning all over the region. But we’ve taken drives to see the sights anyway.

On the Saturday that was part of the Labor Day weekend (it’s celebrated in Canada as well as the U.S.) we drove through the Yoho National Park and into the Banff National Park. It was fairly busy, so busy in fact that we couldn’t find parking at a couple of stops we wanted to make. We’ll do another drive into this area when the weekend is over.

But, in spite of the busy weekend and smoke in the air we were very impressed by the Yoho and Banff National Parks. Beautiful country! Definitely part of the Rocky Mountain chain, the mountains were incredible! One difference between these Rockies and the Colorado Rockies is that in Colorado the drive goes up and along the very top of the range (at about 14,000 ft) while in the Canadian Rockies the drive goes through the range but not to the top. So the views were quite different. We saw several very large glaciers from the road and we know there are many, many more that cannot be seen from the road. We noticed that many of the glaciers are much larger than glaciers we saw in the Glacier National Park in Montana.

The road, by the way, is Route 1, the TransCanada Highway that bisects the entire country!

We drove from Golden, BC to the town of Banff, Alberta and back home again. We saw different views coming and going so it was well worth the double time to drive both ways. Banff, Alberta is a small resort town that seems almost exlusively built for winter sports. It had a real Alpine feel to it.

We also stopped at the Takakkaw Falls (see separate post here) which was magnificent even in September because it’s fed from a glacier. We wanted to stop at two lakes, Emerald Lake and Lake Louise, but there was no parking so we’ll do that on a separate drive.

Here are pictures we took: